


The Future Looks Bleak Without You

by syriala



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, The Winter Soldier - Freeform, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-14 18:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9198089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syriala/pseuds/syriala
Summary: Bucky had known that joining the Avengers after everything he went through would mean some really strange stuff would continue to happen to him. Seeing a future version of himself in the living-room still hadn't made his list.“Jesus, I’m Bucky, I’m from the future, would you please put the gun down before you kill yourself.”“Shut up!” the Soldier barked. “What’s your mission?” he asked because it was apparent that he would not get a satisfactory answer out of the intruder.“I’m cupid.”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InsaneJuliann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneJuliann/gifts).



> This is for Jules, who wanted time travel and angst with a happy ending. I hope I got that right!

When Bucky entered the room he just stood there for a few seconds, on the verge of tears and not knowing what to do.

He looked around the bedroom, realizing that it would never again be _their_ bedroom and he suddenly realized that he had to get his stuff out of here. He couldn’t… he wouldn’t stay here. Tony probably wanted him to, but Bucky couldn’t bear to be in this room any longer.

Bucky mechanically started to get his things, carelessly throwing them on the ground and making a big pile. He would need a suitcase to get them all and he wondered if the rest of his stuff was even still back in his old room.

Bucky started to shake when he grabbed a pair of sweatpants that belonged to Tony. He would never again get the chance to wear something that belonged to Tony, and so he decided to steal them, and one of Tony’s shirts.

He breathed in deeply, eyes closed so that he could pretend Tony was still with him, when suddenly everything became very clear.

Tony had developed the time travel machine years back, but whenever Bucky had insisted on using it to bring them together faster, yes, he was still angry they lost almost six month to useless pining, Tony had cuffed him over the head and chided him. ‘Who knows what’s going to happen, Bucky. Everything could be different. We could not even be together at all in this time’ Tony used to tell him and so Bucky had always relented.

But Tony wasn’t there to cuff him now and to be honest, every change that Bucky managed to make would be better than this hell.

Even though Tony had always forbidden him to use the machine, Bucky knew exactly how it worked and it took him less than a minute to make the necessary adjustments. He still remembered clearly when he had started to fall for Tony and so he used that as a reference to set the date.

Bucky brushed the tears away before he stepped into the machine, because he didn’t want to scare his past self. He just wanted to help him.

~*~*~

Bucky knew that there hadn’t been a sound and yet he could swear that there was someone in the room with him.

He could feel himself slip into the Winter Soldier mind set the second he realized it and so he kept quiet, trying to figure out where the intruder was or what he was going to do. One of his hands closed around the hilt of his gun and as soon as the other person took a step towards the couch the Soldier was up, gun levelled at the intruders’ head.

“Fuck, Sam was right, I really did need a haircut,” the intruder said with a voice that sounded oddly controlled.

“Who are you?” the Soldier asked even though the way the intruder held himself seemed oddly familiar.

“I’m Bucky,” the man said.

The Soldier unlocked the safety. “Who. Are. You,” he repeated and took a menacing step towards the intruder.

“Don’t pull the ‘Who the hell is Bucky’ line on me, pal, that one got old pretty quickly,” the intruder said and he obviously forced himself to be relaxed and unobtrusive.

“Then tell me who you are,” the Soldier growled and the other man raised his hands.

“Jesus, I’m Bucky, I’m from the future, would you please put the gun down before you kill yourself.” There was a deep breath, almost a hitch in his voice and then a little headshake before the man added “I don’t remember being that virulent. I should probably apologize. Maybe not to Clint, but probably all the others.”

“Shut up!” the Soldier barked. “What’s your mission?” he asked because it was apparent that he would not get a satisfactory answer out of the intruder.

“I’m cupid,” the man said and the smile that played around his lips seemed strangely wobbly, so as if it could crumble at any moment.

Still, the smile transformed the face and the sight of that jarred something inside the Soldier, because he hadn’t seen the face like this outside of museum displays.

When he lowered the gun it was no longer the Soldier who decided to make that action.

“What the hell,” Bucky said when he realized that he was actually staring himself in the face.

“That seems about right,” the other man, Barnes, said and then flopped down on the couch. “Come on, take a seat, lots to talk about,” Barnes patted the couch next to him and expectantly looked up at Bucky.

“It’s even worse from this angle,” he muttered and then louder said “You know if you ever want to get into Tony’s pants you really should do something with your hair. I mean, not that he doesn’t love it anyway, but it looks like a bird’s nest from this angle and believe me, you want Tony to see this angle a lot.”

“Jarivs,” Bucky started, desperately trying to get the image Barnes had conjured up out of his head, only to be interrupted with “Privacy protocol, zero three delta, J.”

“Understood,” Jarvis replied and then went silent again.

“What did you just do?” Bucky asked and gripped his gun tighter. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to let go yet.

“I disabled Jarvis in this room. Don’t want this to get out to Tony.” He seemed oddly hesitant with that name but then he went on. “Or anyone else for that matter.”

“Doesn’t want to get what out to Tony?” Bucky growled and he could feel the familiar calmness of the Soldier tugging at his mind.

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, Bruce’s techniques were very helpful in that regard, before he looked at Barnes again.

Barnes looked expectantly at him, but thankfully he didn’t say anything and so Bucky had a chance to take a good look at him.

He seemed relaxed but almost unhealthy, his skin had a greyish colour and even though Bucky could tell that he was still muscular he wasn’t sporting the muscle mass he had when he was the Winter Soldier. He was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt, so Bucky had a good look at his metal arm and it looked a lot like something Tony wanted to design for him if only Bucky would let him.

“What the hell,” Bucky said again, because it was worth repeating and Barnes snorted.

“I see, we are still at the mostly non-verbal state of our recovery. By the way, you’ll want to make good friends with the Soldier, you’re gonna need him.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Bucky asked, disbelieve clear in his voice. There was no way in hell he would ever ‘make good friends’ with the Soldier.

“I just know a bit more than you do and I am telling you, you’re gonna need him. You’re not able to fight, too afraid and so very tired of it, but you will want to and for that you’ll need him,” Barnes explained and it seemed like it wasn’t a big thing for him.

“Damn right I don’t want to fight anymore. And I will never want to fight again,” Bucky told him, because Steve had already asked and he _wouldn’t, not ever, don’t ever ask that again of me, Steve_ and Bucky couldn’t see a way that would change.

Barnes simply smiled at him. “You’ll see about that.”

“Where did you even come from?” Bucky asked and lifted the gun again. He felt really unsettled by this whole scene and pointing a weapon at someone at least put the Soldier at ease.

“The future. Your future to be precise,” Barnes said and got up, circled around Bucky once.

“I see you haven’t let Tony work on your arm yet?” he asked and Bucky wished for a long-sleeved shirt.

He was slowly learning that his arm was nothing he needed to hide anymore but scrutiny like that always made him uneasy.

“What’s it to you?” he snapped at Barnes who shrugged nonchalantly.

“You should, is all I’m saying,” Barnes gave back once he stopped his circling motion.

“And why is that?”

“It would clear something up about that damn pining you have going on.”

Bucky’s hackles immediately went up. Sure, this was technically he himself, so of course Barnes would know all about the pining, no reason to deny it, but it still was Bucky’s first instinct.

“I am not…”

“Spare me the bullshit,” Barnes suddenly said, voice hard and angry. “Don’t pretend like you don’t love him, like you don’t want to be near him, like you don’t think he is the best thing that happened in the future so far. Don’t pretend,” Barnes spat out. “Because I am you and I know how it felt.”

Bucky eyed him, taking in how shaken Barnes looked, how angry he got, how his voice always seemed to break when he was talking about Tony.

“You said you’re here to play cupid. Why? It doesn’t look like it’s working out in your time, so why would you even come here? So that I can get to the pain earlier?”

“You know nothing about my time,” Barnes lowly said.

“I’m going to tell Tony,” Bucky decided. “Jarvis, don’t let him out of your sight,” he ordered and walked past Barnes, who just watched him, much to Bucky’s surprise.

“You do that,” he heard Barnes whisper behind him, but Bucky was not about to turn around and ask what he meant now.

Barnes was technically an intruder in the tower and Bucky knew that Tony would be all over Barnes, asking questions after questions, trying to learn what he could about the time travel. It’s not a secret Bucky wanted to keep and so he quickly went to the workshop, where he was most likely to find Tony.

When he got there, Bucky took a second to just watch Tony work, it’s always mesmerizing to see him move with that much confidence, but when he remembered what Barnes had said, about Tony on his knees, about him being the best part of this future, Bucky quickly went on.

There was no need to dwell on something that would never be. Besides, the way Barnes acted, it didn’t look like it’s something permanent anyway.

“My favourite Tin Man,” Tony greeted him when he entered the shop. “What can I do for you today?” he asked, while he fiddled with a screwdriver.

“There is a time traveling Bucky Barnes on my floor,” Bucky said without preamble and Tony stared in surprise at him.

“Excuse me, what?”

“There is a time traveling Barnes on my floor,” Bucky repeated, slightly rolling his eyes.

“You cannot just stroll in here with all your,” Tony gestured at Bucky instead of saying anything about his whatever it was he meant, “and then say something like that. What do you mean a time traveler?”

“He said he is from my future,” Bucky explained and Tony’s eyes got huge.

“An actual time traveler? Did I make the technology, did you ask? Where is he? I need to talk to him!”

Bucky pointed at the door, pretty sure that Barnes had at least halfway followed him down here, and Tony was excitedly bouncing in front of him.

“Tell me everything,” he demanded.

Bucky sighed. He really didn’t want to explain this but of course Tony couldn’t just let it be. “He showed up, said he had something to do, and then I came to tell you.”

“What does he want to do? Isn’t changing the past dangerous? What if he changes his future? What does he want, Bucky, come on, tell me!”

“Why don’t you go ask him yourself?” Bucky asked but Tony shook his head.

“I need to know first, so that I know what I am getting into. What if he is here to kill me? Or abduct me? I need to know, tell me.”

“He is not going to abduct you. He can barely speak about you.”

It was amazing how quickly Tony’s face fell, and Bucky immediately felt bad.

“So future you doesn’t like me any better than present you, got it,” Tony tried to joke, but his voice was flat and there was an unhappy twist to his mouth.

Bucky cringed. “I don’t think that’s how it is. And besides, I like you just fine,” he gruffly said.

“But future you doesn’t want to see me,” Tony said and Bucky decided fuck it.

He hated seeing Tony this unhappy and if he had to explain the exact nature of Barnes visit, as much as he understood it himself, to make Tony happy again, then he would.

“He says he’s here as ‘cupid’.”

“What does that even mean?” Tony asked, but his mouth had lost the downturn.

Bucky took a deep breath before he said “He thinks there is some mutual pining going on, so he is here to do something about that? I am not so sure myself,” Bucky admitted and then slightly shuffled on his feet.

He was not used to making unnecessary movements, but with every day he spent here he found it easier to do them and being under the full force of Tony’s stare required some shuffling in Bucky’s books.

“Mutual pining? Between whom?” Tony asked, obviously oblivious to Bucky’s embarrassment.

“Between…us?” Bucky carefully said and Tony blinked in surprise.

“But you don’t care about me,” Tony finally managed and Bucky’s heart made a painful thud.

“I do care about you,” he quickly reassured Tony. “It’s you who doesn’t like me too much.”

“Now that is just utter bullshit,” Tony declared.

Neither of them said a word with that revelation and then Tony chuckled before he said “So, mutual pining, huh?”

“Maybe?” Bucky asked, because he was not sure what Tony was implying here.

“There definitely has been some pining on my part,” Tony stated when he realized that Bucky was confused and then he blushed slightly.

“I mean not that I’m…. I wouldn’t say I’m in love with you yet, but…maybe I have a crush? And I would like to see where it goes? If you are willing?” Tony rambled and Bucky decided if Tony could say it like that then so could he.

“I would like to see where it goes,” Bucky admitted and wished he had done so earlier, just so he had known all along how beautiful an honest smile looked on Tony’s face.

“I’m glad we got that out of the way then,” Tony told him.

“Me too,” Bucky admitted, but then he froze up, not knowing if Tony expected anything from him right now.

Tony seemed to sense his dilemma, because he took Bucky’s hand in his and lifted it to his lips to press a lingering kiss to his knuckles.

“We’ll take it slow,” Tony promised him and then pulled Bucky in, obviously only for a hug, but Bucky might just be a bit disappointed with that.

So when he was close enough he quickly angled his head up to brush his lips over Tony’s, who seemed surprised but also very pleased, if the smile around his mouth was any indication.

“Slow, huh?” Tony asked with a chuckle and Bucky can feel himself blush.

“Maybe not that slow,” he mumbled and promptly hid his face in Tony’s neck.

Tony’s hands automatically came up, one cupping the back of Bucky’s head, while the other came to rest on his back and Bucky felt very boneless against Tony like this.

He couldn’t imagine a better place to be.

~*~*~

Bucky was standing outside the workshop, looking in, trying not to fall apart.

It had already been hard to imagine that this times Bucky and Tony still had everything to come for them, that there were months and years of love and belonging in front of them, but seeing it hurt more than Bucky had ever imagined.

It was different from when he and his Tony had come together, of course it was, that was the goal of this whole thing, but the love and hope he could see on their faces was just the same.

The soft intimacy, the kiss, the hug, it tore Bucky apart and he had to turn away when Tony lifted his hands to hold Bucky.

His Tony would never hold Bucky like that ever again and it killed something inside Bucky to think about that.

He turned away, blinking tears from his eyes, and when he lifted his hand to activate the wristband that would bring him back to his time, he realized that he was shaking and suddenly all the ‘What-if’s’ slammed into him.

What if it hadn’t changed anything? What if it did change their start but the end result was the same? What if Tony would still…? Bucky couldn’t bring that thought to an end, it was too painful to even contemplate, and Bucky straightened up.

Time to face whatever was waiting for him back home.

Bucky pressed the button and it only took a second before he was standing in the workshop again, where he had started out.

But this time the workshop was full of live, buzzing and moving around him, all the lights lit up and Dum-E was already curiously poking him.

“James Buchanan Barnes, what have I told you about the time machine and its usage?” Tony asked him and Bucky started to cry right then and there.

The sobs took his breath away and he almost fell to his knees, if it wouldn’t have been for Tony who caught him.

“Hey, hey, what happened?” Tony asked, voice full of concern but Bucky couldn’t form words, too heavy were the sobs that still wrecked him.

“Where did you go? What did you see?” Tony frantically asked him but Bucky couldn’t tell him through his sobs and instead he fell to his knees, taking Tony with him.

“I went back,” Bucky eventually managed, “before, before we were together.”

“What did you do?” Tony asked, horror clear in his voice. He knew about the repercussions time travel could have.

“I got us together earlier,” Bucky admitted, tears still flowing freely.

“Why would you do that? What did it change?” Tony asked, looking around as if he could see the changes all around him, when the biggest change was holding Bucky close.

“You _died_ , Tony, you were dead and I had to go to your funeral, I had to hold your eulogy, I had to _put you into the ground_ and you were _dead_ , and I couldn’t, I couldn’t live with that, you were gone and left me all alone, _you were gone_ ,” Bucky sobbed into Tony’s neck and he could feel Tony go stiff all over.

“I…died?” he carefully asked and Bucky shook all over by now.

“You left me alone,” Bucky said again and he clung to Tony, painfully clutching him close, determined to never let him go ever again.

“And you went back to change it,” Tony mumbled into Bucky’s hair.

“Yes,” Bucky sobbed. “I thought it couldn’t get worse anyway, you were gone, what could be worse, so I thought why not try it. Even if we broke up and weren’t together anymore, if you would be alive that would be better than anything else.”

Tony weakly chuckled. “I love you too,” he told Bucky.

“Don’t leave me again,” Bucky whispered.

“You’ll have to tell me how it happened in the first place, cause I don’t remember it,” Tony told him. “But how about we go to bed first?”

“Please,” Bucky nodded and Tony gently moved him until they stood again.

Bucky couldn’t bring himself to let go of Tony, what if he vanished again, but Tony didn’t complain once.

They entered their bedroom, where their things were still lying all over the place, where Tony was still so very clearly present, and Bucky couldn’t hold back the tears yet again.

“Shh, honey, I am still here. You brought me back, okay, you got me back, I’m still here.”

“Don’t leave me,” Bucky said and Tony shook his head.

“I’ll clear my schedule with Pepper, I’ll get a week of. I won’t go,” Tony promised and Bucky kissed him then full of love and still lingering grief, but Tony only pulled him closer.

“Come on now, love,” Tony said and pulled him to the bed.

They quickly shed their clothes and crawled under the blanket, never once letting the other go.

“I’m here, love. Sleep now, okay? I’m right here, and I will be here when you wake up, I promise.”

“Okay,” Bucky mumbled but he didn’t close his eyes.

Tony chuckled a bit when he saw it. “Or you can tell me what happened. Either when I died or what you did now,” Tony offered and Bucky readily took this opportunity.

“I was still a broody asshole,” Bucky started and Tony laughed outright at that.

“So nothing much changed,” he teased Bucky who couldn’t help but kiss him again.

Bucky was so grateful to have Tony back, to be able to hear him joke, to hear his laugh that he was pretty sure he would be kissing him all the time now.

Still, Bucky softly punched him in the shoulder and then continued his tale, safe and sound in the arms of the one person he loved. It was a good evening.

 

 

 

 


End file.
